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Beneath the skids, Aric swung himself upward and landed just above the gun deck. He slashed his sword at her rocket launcher, and a shower of sparks cascaded down.
Sol raised a fist. “Take her down!”
Kentarch said, “He dismantled all her remaining rockets.” Was his voice getting weaker? Even with my coagulant, he’d lost so much blood.
Circe said, “No mishaps. No misfortune. Is she empty?”
Was Zara’s luck done? If she experienced a burst of adrenaline, could she tap into another reserve?
I’d just had the thought when two lightning bolts lanced my vines. Clenching my fists against the pain, I held on to her, driving her closer to the ground.
From way too far above us, Aric yelled, “Release it, Evie!”
More lightning struck my vines, but I refused to let him go.
Zara shoved the nose down and shot her guns at the foxhole. I forced her in another direction, and bullets pitted rocks in the distance. All the while, I struggled to reel her in, to get Aric closer to safety.
Clearly not caring about his own welfare, he stabbed his sword into the cockpit to pry open the glass. Zara was just there! Alarms blared from the craft.
Another bolt flashed near them, the light blinding me. I blinked furiously. Oh, God, it’d struck him directly. “Aric!”
He staggered, but still clung to the side of the copter.
His helmet was gone.
I screamed “Drop down, now! Leave her!”
He either ignored me or couldn’t hear me.
Fear shallowed my breaths until I was hyperventilating, my abilities weakening.
Zara drew a pistol from her jump seat and aimed it; Aric knocked it from her hand!
The copter surged upward. Barely hanging on, Aric raised his sword to deliver the killing blow.
Lightning struck again, hitting his weapon. He somehow kept his grip on his sword. Somehow didn’t die. How could he withstand that?
The next seconds seemed to move in slow motion.
The copter pitched, the force throwing Aric forward into the cockpit; Zara raised her hands to shove him away.
Her hand must have grazed his face. As they shared a glance, her eyes turned purple, then black branched out over her bared arms.
Circe yelled, “Yes, reap her!”
“Touch of Death!” Sol howled. “Take that, Zara!”
She shrieked in agony, her limbs flailing as she thrashed against her safety harness.
But her luck theft had struck just as Aric’s power had—veins of purple forked out across his face.
“Aric!” I cried.
With a last crescendo of spasms and screams, Zara slumped, lifeless. Fortune was no more.
I screamed to Aric, “Get out of there!” Her power would die with her. Right?
Fire broke out in the cockpit, those alarms going crazy. I couldn’t think past fear. Couldn’t concentrate on my vines as I grappled to land Aric.
The copter banked as if in death throes, taking me and my vines by surprise. He leapt away, but the burning cockpit seemed to scoop him from the air.
He must’ve hit the controls. With a deafening whine, the helicopter plunged toward the ground.
42
The Empress
I tried to sense Aric through my vines, past the flames and smoke. Before they could yank him free, he’d jumped.
I attempted to catch him in midair. Missed.
Breathless moments passed until he hit the ground, rolling to his feet.
When he stood, I nearly vomited in relief.
Just like in the movies, Aric swaggered toward us as an explosion boomed behind him. He was returning to me, alive and unharmed. The hero.
But we weren’t in the clear. I climbed from the foxhole. “Find your helmet and put it on!” I shouted. His luck had been stolen. Who knew what could happen?
He spotted his helmet and retrieved it. With a look of relief, he donned it. Safe. Armored.
My knees went weak.
He opened his arms to me, and I limped toward him. All I wanted to do was give him a piece of my mind. But with Fortune gone, the Emperor advanced on us. The air grew hotter, the quakes starting up once more. I yelled, “Richter’s coming!”
Sol raced from the foxhole to reach his station again. He hefted a launcher, letting a rocket fly, then another. Another. Each hit sent up puffs of smoke as Richter defended himself.
The copter crash must’ve destroyed that ultrasonic blaster; Lark’s wolves returned from the barn, snarling to join the fray.
Circe and a visibly shaken Lark helped Kentarch limp from the foxhole. He was reeling from blood loss and injured worse than I’d realized, but he directed them to set him against a bullet-pitted tree—a front-row seat to the finale?
Circe turned to the river’s edge and raised her hands to summon a tidal wave, while Lark sent another swarm of bats to dive-bomb Richter.
We were still in this! We had wolves, rockets, a wave, and the Endless Knight. If we all worked together, we had a shot. I’d almost reached Aric, was parting my lips to tell him not to take risks like that—
